


Rescue Mission

by Lobotomite



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Animal Neglect, M/M, non-graphic animal abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-28 10:48:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11416332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lobotomite/pseuds/Lobotomite
Summary: Aaron doesn't take kindly to people mistreating animals. Adam doesn't either, but he would really, really like for neither of them to end up in jail over it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for prompt #69 on http://mymiscfandomimagines.tumblr.com/post/154996877352/drabble-list : "We are not going to steal someone’s dog.”

Don't get him wrong, it's making Adam uncomfortable too. It's not like he's enjoying the way the man a bit away from them is being so rough with his dog, the way its spine is pronounced and knobbly and its ribs are sharp and obvious.

But there’s only so much they can do, as strangers, and Aaron has his fucking Dingle face on and Adam really, really does not need them to get in trouble with the law again after so long staying clean.

"Aaron," he says, voice low in warning, and the bastard doesn't even look at him, just keeps his eyes fixed on the dog, jaw clenched, and grunts.

"What?"

"Aaron. Get that look off your face, mate."

"What look," he says shortly – doesn't even ask, because he knows exactly what Adam is talking about.

"You know what I'm bloody talking about," he says, and Aaron's scowl just deepens as the man yanks the dog by it's chain and ties it to a post in the yard.

He really should have known this was a bad idea. Oh, accept that invitation to a party, he'd thought, it'll be good to get you and Aaron out of the house. You're still young, your date nights shouldn't all consist of staying in with takeaways or going to the village pub. Bar West is all well and good, but branch out a little. Make some more friends, have a good time.

Of course that ended up with Aaron almost immediately ditching the inside of the house – with it's loud music and crowd of already drunk people – to slouch against the railings of the deck, sipping from the drink in his hand ( _'at least drink something other than beer, Aaron, it's a party,'_ Adam had said, so he's holding a glass of vodka instead of his usual can) and looking grumpy. Which, okay, wasn't the point of parties, but Adam hadn't really expected anything different, and he figured they could ease Aaron into it out here before coaxing him inside to have some fun.

It had been good, at first. Talking with Aaron is always easy, and he could see Aaron relaxing, out here where there were only a few people scattered around minding their own business. Aaron has never been big on public displays of affection, but he leans against his side when Adam hops up on the railing next to him, seems content to let Adam rest his hand on the crook of his neck and occasionally rub his thumb against Aaron's skin.

Honestly, they've been together over a year now, and his heart still flutters at being so obviously a couple in public; not the nervous, exhilarated flutter of being out for the first time, of being obvious, but the gentler flutter of pride and happiness that Aaron is with _him_ , that he's comfortable showing that to the world. That they've finally, finally made it.

And then that bloke had stormed out of the house dragging that poor dog behind him, he'd felt Aaron go stock-still beside him, and he'd known the night was officially ruined.

Aaron had immediately twisted around, staring hard at the man and the dog, and Adam had twisted around too, placing a cautioning hand on the back of Aaron's neck.

But now the man is walking back inside, and it was shit but they can relax now, Aaron's not going to get in any fights, and – and Aaron is slamming his drink down, pushing himself away from the railing and striding purposefully down the stairs. Fuck.

"Aaron!" he hisses, chasing after him. "Aaron, what the fuck are you doing?" He shoots a guilty look behind him, and there's luckily nobody outside at the moment – but that's not to say that that's going to last for long, and if Aaron is intending to do what Adam thinks he is, that is not a good thing.

The dogs has seen them coming and is wagging it's tail furiously, walking out right to the end of it's chain and snuffling, managing to look both excited and immensely supplicatory. Aaron, thankfully, stops just out of reach, squatting down and offering a hand which the dog enthusiastically covers in spit.

" _Aaron_ ," he warns again, "Aaron, _we are not going to steal someone's dog._ "

"Is that gate unlocked?" Is Aaron's only response, and Adam swears, rubbing his hands exasperatedly down his face.

"Babe, come on, we can call the RSPCA. We don't need to break the law." Aaron just snorts like that's the stupidest thing Adam has ever said, moving forward and gently rubbing the dog behind the ears. Adam can't help but give the dog a weary look; she (and it's obviously a she, engorged teats making it clear she's had a few litters in her time) seems more eager to drown Aaron in spit than to hurt him, straining against the chain and thick, spiked leather collar (likely the most money ever spent on the poor thing) to press into his gentle hands, but she's got a thick, wide head, jaw clearly powerful despite her malnourished state, and she looks like she could do a fair amount of damage.

Aaron is cooing softly to her as Adam nervously hovers behind him, moving forward even more so that she's close enough to advance her tongue bath to his jaw, then turns his head to give Adam a look over his shoulder.

"They'd just give him a slap on the wrist, Adam, and they wouldn't even take her right away," he says derisively – Adam would be offended at the tone if he didn't know that most of it is directed at the dog's bastard of an owner – and he has to admit that Aaron's probably right. Aaron's definitely not going to be convinced he's not.

"Fuck, Aaron, fine, if you're going to do it, do it fast," he says, giving in, and Aaron grins triumphantly.

"Go check out the gate, then," he says, and Adam obliges this time, after a quick look around to make sure there's still nobody outside. The gate swings open easily, so he hurries back to where Aaron has already managed to get the chain off the post and has a very excited dog pressing adoringly against his legs.

"Come on, then," he says, trying to keep up his annoyed, I'm-only-doing-this-for-you tone, but he can't deny that it's exciting, taking matters into his own hands, and seeing the dog looking so pathetically happy at Aaron's gentle attention he doesn't know that he could leave it to suffer more of the same.

It's quick and easy, after all that fuss. The dog comes easily and quietly, sticking close to Aaron, and they're out the gate, down the road, and into the car long before anyone ventures out into the back yard. Aaron hops into the back seat with the dog, and Adam twists around in the driver's seat after turning the car and the lights on to look at their new acquisition.

Aaron has her mostly in his lap, giving her big, full bodied rubs and murmuring affectionately to her, and god, he loves this man. He spends a while just watching, knowing he looks daft with a lovestruck smile on his face but not giving a shit, and finally speaks up when he's worried Aaron genuinely is going to drown.

"What's her name, then?" he asks, and Aaron pulls away slightly, grabbing at the tag on her collar and squinting at it.

" _Champagne_ ," he reads, and snorts, shaking his head. "Well, we're definitely changing that."

"Hold on," Adam says. "Who said we're keeping her?" Aaron stares at him blankly, like he's trying to understand why Adam would possibly ask that question, and Adam just sighs. Aaron has obviously already decided she's theirs; it looks like she's decided the same thing. He knows when he's outnumbered. Maybe this will be enough to get Liv that cat Aaron has been refusing to get her. "Fine, fine, but she's not sleeping on the bloody bed either, Aaron. Scrappy doesn't get to so neither does she. And no, they can't _both_ sleep on the bed. They're dogs."

Aaron makes a face, but he can't keep it up with still-Champagne's head resting on his lap, her tail thumping against the seat. "Do you think Paddy will still be up?" Adam takes note of Aaron not actually agreeing with him, but this he's going to stay firm on. Probably.

"Nah. She'll be alright for the night, though, and we can take her 'round before work. She'll probably like coming along." Aaron hums in agreement, perfectly content now that he's got a happy dog on his lap, and smiles when Adam reaches out to carefully pet her head. "What d'you reckon she is?"

"Pitbull, probably," Aaron says casually, "Or a staffy, maybe." That sounds right; she's got the jaw of one, at least. One of the many reasons this was almost definitely a bad idea, but its done now.

"Right," Adam says, turning back to the front and putting the car in drive. "Time to get our newest family member home, then."


	2. Chapter 2

Adam loves seeing Aaron like this; soft and calm and reassuring, every ounce of the considerable love he has on display. He feels bad, sometimes, that other people don't get to see this and only see the hard man act he puts on; the larger part of him, though, is and always has been greedily pleased that he's one of the few people to know the real Aaron. The one who would die for the people he loves, the one who looks at him like he hung the sun in the sky, the one who sees a scared, mistreated dog and has to do something about it to hell with the consequences. The one who is currently sat in their backseat with the dog's thick head cradled in his hands, murmuring softly to it as its tail thumps against the seat.

The dog, like most animals, obviously sees the real Aaron, too, and seems to love him just as much as Aaron loves her. She doesn't appear at all bothered by the car ride, focusing completely, as far as Adam can tell while keeping his eyes on the road, on trying to cover as much of Aaron's face with spit as possible. She starts off the ride wriggling around and climbing into Aaron's lap and butting her head into his chest, generally trying to get as much attention as possible, but by the time Adam pulls into their driveway she's sprawled quietly across the seat with her head in Aaron's lap.

"So," Adam says, "How are we going to do this, then?" Aaron looks over and raises his eyebrows, thumb gently rubbing behind the dog's ear.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we don't know what she's like with other dogs, do we? Probably not the best time to introduce her to Scrappy."

Aaron's nose wrinkles – adorably, in that way that still makes Adam's heart skip a beat, though he knows that saying it would earn him a horrified and embarrassed glare – and he looks back down.

"Mmm. We can't leave her outside, though." His gaze flicks up to Adam and then down again, a small smile starting to pull at his mouth. "Can't really leave her alone until we know what she's like about chewing, either. Guess we need to have her in with us tonight; we can put Scrappy in the spare room while we bring her in."

Adam wants to fix Aaron with his best unimpressed stare and tell him no way, but he has to admit, that seems to be the easiest way to deal with everything for tonight. He makes sure, though, that Aaron knows he's completely aware of his ulterior motive with a loud sigh before he gives in.

"She's not getting on the bed," he says firmly, but he can't keep up his stern expression when Aaron gives him a bright, overly innocent grin.

"Of course not," he says cheerfully and completely unconvincingly. "Do you want to go up and get Scrappy into the spare room while I let this one have a sniff around on the grass? Hopefully she'll need to piss now and I won't have to take her out again 'till tomorrow."

Adam nods his assent and pushes his door open, pulling himself out and waiting for Aaron to lead the dog out and close his own door before locking the car up and heading inside.

He's not surprised to see Liv curled up on the couch when he steps into the warmth of the living room, but she does a double take upon seeing him, tapping blindly at her controller to turn off her show and fixing him with her full attention.

"You're home early," she says, propping her chin on the back of the couch and watching him drop his keys on the counter before returning Scrappy's enthusiastic, whuffly greeting. "Did he hate it that much?"

Adam grimaces, giving Scrappy a few affectionate thumps on the side.

"It's a bit more complicated than that. He's not in any trouble," he hastens to add when Liv casts a worried glance towards the door. "He's just waiting for me to get Scrappy shut into the spare room. We, uh... We may have found ourselves in possession of a new dog, and we don't want to rush an introduction."

Liv's eyebrows seem to be trying to climb off her forehead at that news, and her expression flickers between incredulity and delighted amusement.

"Are you telling me you and Aaron went out to a party and ended up _stealing a dog?_ "

"We _saved_ a dog," he corrects, while leading Scrappy by the collar to the spare room and shutting her in with a murmured 'good girl'. "Seriously, it was take her or watch Aaron beat someone to death. She's in a really bad state."

Liv frowned and pushed up off the couch, heading to the door as he does the same.

"Shouldn't you be getting Paddy around, then?" she asks, and he shakes his head.

"We're going to bring her over to Paddy's tomorrow morning; she's in a state, but she's not bleeding to death or anything." Liv, so much like her older brother, has completely moved past the dog-snatching as the obvious course of action rather than something unreasonable, and is following him with wide, solemn eyes, gaze flicking from him to the stairs in front of them as if she can will the dog into her line of sight.

"Shouldn't you make sure, though?" she asks doubtfully, but doesn't wait for his response, trotting past him as soon as the front door opens on Aaron following the dog around the garden.

It's gotten darker, in the time it's taken them to get home, last vestiges of sunlight clinging to the horizon, but even in dim silhouette the dog's poor condition is obvious. He hears a soft, dismayed _'oh'_ as Liv passes him, but she's smart enough to come to a halt with plenty of room between her and Aaron, letting the dog have her space.

Aaron raises a hand in greeting, and as soon as he acknowledges Liv the dog notices her as well, abandoning the patch of grass she'd been enthusiastically sniffing to tow Aaron over to greet Liv.

Adam leans against the doorway, a familiar warm affection blooming in his chest as he watches the little family he's managed to find. They're both down on their haunches now, Liv's laugh ringing out as the dog gives her an energetic greeting; it's too dark to see their faces, but Adam can see their expressions in his mind's eye anyway, can see the soft, adoring look Liv always puts on Aaron's face and the bright grin that they're treated to when Liv feels her most comfortable. God, he loves them, enough that he can't bring himself to care about the fact that he's just committed a crime rather than take the technically more responsible option of calling the RSPCA to deal with it.

He doesn't want to ruin their fun, but it is getting pretty damn cold and dark, so he calls them over.

"Alright, you lot, let's bring this inside," he says, pushing off from the wall and meeting Aaron for a quick kiss when they get close. "She's good with people, isn't she?" He observes, prompting a proud smile from Aaron.

"That's 'cause you're a good, lovely girl, aren't you?" he coos, giving her a quick rub on the head when she pants up at him with a big doggy grin. "Come on, time for you to see your new home."

Adam knew as soon as Aaron decided to take her home that it was unrealistic to think their new dog would have no issues – she'd clearly not had an easy go of it, and that kind of life didn't exactly lend to a completely stable dog. It's just that, of all the issues he expected her to have, _stairs_ was not on the top of the list.

She'd been happy and cooperative the whole time they'd had her, following along wherever Aaron lead her, but as soon as Aaron takes the first step she balks, digging her feet in and shuffling backwards. Aaron's brow creases in concern, and he lets her skit away from the stairs, following her as she flees.

"Hey, what's the matter, sweetheart?" He asks softly, crouching down so she can cuddle into him apologetically. "It's just some stairs, they won't hurt you." He casts Adam a confused look, and Adam can only shrug in response, completely at a loss.

"Well this is going to make it difficult to- _Aaron_ ," he scolds, unable to stop himself from lurching protectively forward when Aaron decides that the easiest way to do this is apparently just picking her up and carrying her up the stairs.

The dog hasn't shown any signs of aggression this whole time, but he's keenly aware of how powerful those jaws are and how close they are to Aaron's face and neck. It would only take one badly positioned fear-bite to cause a hell of a lot of damage. And, okay, maybe he takes a second to be inappropriately appreciative of the way his boyfriend can easily and gently lift what is probably a decently heavy dog, but he's intimately aware of the really nice arms always tragically hidden under bulky hoodies. He is only human, and the brief reminder is only a small, brief distraction from the more pressing concern about dog bites.

Aaron, for his part, is unimpressed with Adam's loving concern, giving him his "stop fussing" look and carefully making his way back over to the stairs. Adam trails behind him, nervous gaze firmly on the dog, but she's thankfully calm in Aaron's arms. She doesn't look entirely comfortable, craning her neck to look from him to Aaron to Liv and back again, but they all make it up the stairs blessedly un-mauled and she bounds happily off to explore when Aaron puts her down.

"Well, that's the first hurdle done with," he says, slinging an arm over Aaron's shoulder and watching her snuffle around the living room. "Could have done it a bit safer, mind," he can't help but add, and Aaron just rolls his eyes, pinching Adam's hip.

"She's a big sook, Adam, she wasn't gonna do anything. I'd've put her down right away if she got scared, anyway." He turns and presses a kiss to Adam's mouth by way of implicit apology, though, and Adam winds his other arm around his neck, turning it into a proper kiss to the vocal disapproval of Liv.

"Get a room," she mutters with over exaggerated disgust, making Aaron smile against his lips. Disappointingly, she gets her way a few seconds later when he pulls away from Adam all together and walks over to where the dog seems to be attempting to inhale Scrappy's bedding, tail an ecstatic blur.

"Come on, girl, let's get you settled into the bedroom so your poor sister can come back out."

It doesn't take long to get her set up in their room, and they all settle onto the couches as Scrappy hunts down any hint of the new dog's scent, ears perked and tail stump wagging.

"So," Adam says as Liv flicks the screen over to normal TV, "we can't keep calling her 'dog' forever, if you're so set on not using Champagne. Any ideas?"

"Killer," Liv offers immediately, moving quickly down her list at their snorts of laughter. "Bruiser? Bandit? Brutus? Soul-devourer?"

" _Soul-devourer_? Liv, you're banned from this discussion," Aaron says, nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Okay, okay, I'll take it seriously," she protests, fighting a smile. "Um, what about Arya? Or Riley?" Aaron hums thoughtfully, but doesn't look convinced.

"Harley?" He offers, but even as he's saying it he's clearly already decided against it, brow furrowed as he tries to think of another name.

"We could call her Bonnie," Adam says offhandedly, mind half on another rescued dog that Aaron had loved so fiercely, and as soon as the words leave his mouth he worries that they were a mistake, that reminding Aaron of the dog he still feels guilty about will drag Aaron's mood down.

He twists his fingers nervously in the fabric of his pants as it takes Aaron a second to make that connection, half hoping he won't, but then Aaron's eyes go soft and his mouth curls at the corners, and he knows that she's got a name.

"Bonnie," Aaron repeats softly with amusement colouring his voice. "Yeah, I like that."

"Bonnie it is," Adam says with a happy grin, and Liv nods her head in agreement, even though her eyes are curious at the reference she's missing.

It won't be a seamless adjustment; they've already found one behavioural quirk, and Adam is confident it won't be the last. But sitting in the warmth of their living room, Aaron pressed against his side with a small smile on his face and Liv stretched out on the other couch, Scrappy still sniffing around the room and the TV a soft hum in the background, Adam can't be anything other than pleased at their little family getting a little bit bigger.


End file.
